Beginning Again
by opheliapain19
Summary: Sequel to "12" - The baby is here, Max can't keep her mind off of someone and guess what? It's not Logan! Now there is dangerous secrets floating around and the biggest one is about to be blown straight open by an old enemy. MAL
1. Beginnings

Begginings  
  
I can't look into Alec's eyes anymore, they make me want to cry. Having Eva has thrown my senses into overdrive though, so just about everything makes me want to cry. Alec got his job back, only because I begged Normal to pretend he had a conscience in that tyrannical mind of his. He can't resist me sometimes. Must be the feline dna. But, waking up at night when Eva cries, its Alec I think about sitting by the window cradling her, not Logan. I am scared because of these emotions that have been welling inside of me since her birth. Logan bought Eva an entire new store of clothing and acts like he loves her so much. But Alec can't even hold her in his arms without having to disarm that want to call her 'his baby girl'. When I'm biking around Seattle, its Alec's hands I make believe are holding me. But then I hear Logans voice telling me how nice my hair smells today or how good the weather in Seattle has been and the guilt rushes in, like my heart had just been flooded just as a dam. Eva is the most beautiful baby I had ever seen, although the only other baby I have seen is Jace's. She is so tiny but behind those bright brown eyes you can see the stratagies building. She is soft just like a pillow in my arms, so huggable. I could not imagine being in Alec's position and having to let her go, all the time. But I am a Mommy now and she will need me to protect her. But what else is, I need and want Alec to protect me instead of...  
  
Logan.   
  
  
  
I can't believe I am a father. I never really thought about having kids, I just knew it was the thing to do once you got older. And Max is a beautiful mother. I just can't understand, that if the virus was taken down only a month before, how did she get pregnant a month later? Must be the X-5 gestation period is shorter. Meanwhile, I had been busy tracking down Lydecker, who turned out to be murdered. Even so, I can't question this. Eva is gorgeous. I want to show her so many things that are still beautiful in this world. No matter how broken this world may be, Eva will see pieces that are still quite together. Max is taking Eva to Alec's today so he can watch her while she works. I told her I would watch her but she said her 'Uncle Alec' wanted to have her for the day. Well, Max is leaving now. I kiss her goodbye and she 'hmmphs' me. I tilt my head. "What?" I ask. "You have Cheerios breath." I laugh alittle. Married life is so interesting. "Get outta here, you!" I say, kissing Eva's forehead as she lays draped over Max's shoulder, cooing happily. I scoot up the diaper bag on Max's other arm as it is just about to slip off. "Thanks A-" and she stops, "alot. Love you, sweetie. Have a good day." I nod and blow her a kiss. She exits the apartment as I walk back to my desk. Did she just began to call me....  
  
Alec.   
  
Eva is so small. I don't know what I thought she would look like but not this gorgeous, cooing miniature of a person. We never saw babies before at Manticore. They were weaned off their mothers, the mothers were killed and then they were put in private nurseries the other soldiers were not allowed to see. I always wondered though, especially in solitary confinement where you could hear them through the walls. And now I have seen one, a baby, and she is my very own. Logan thinks she has his eyes. Man, is he dillusional. And Max always plays into it, "Oh yeah and look, your nose too, I think." And Logan would look at her, eyes twinkling, and say "Oh my God, yeah, it is." My stomach turns just listening to Max's lies. But I can't hate her for her decision. If I could, I would but what she has done was ensure the survival of our child by marrying the most endowned man she knew.....and who loved her. I loved her but that never mattered. I had a minimum wage job and a mediocore home. So Eva would enjoy all the luxuries of life...but not have her real father or even know who he is. I would have thought Max would have wanted Eva to have her real father because we had been indisposed from knowing our real parents. Even I knew there was a time Max went looking for her mother, Original Cindy had told me one night at Crash. How could Max not want something better for her daughter? I haven't even seen Eva since the day after she was born, in that crowded hospital where if I closed my eyes I would have never found Max until much later. Logan held her hand, his brow was sweating more than me. I was doing my non-Dad impression, looking all non-chalant about the whole ordeal. Inside, I was caving in with all kinds of emotions. Fear, anxiety, and strangest of all, an odd sense of hope. I was witnessing my daughter being born. I am still alittle nervous about today, since this would be the first time in four months since I had seen her. Seen Eva and...  
  
Max.  
  
  
  
I cannot believe it has been four months since I have seen Alec because everyday since then his face has been crisp in my mind. That defiant, worried gaze I caught in his eyes in the delivery room. Logan left the room for a moment to talk to Asha about how things were going and he sat down beside me and slowly slid his hand into mine. I thought he was doing this to be sweet but it turned out it was just so I'd have something to squeeze onto. Or so he said when Logan re-entered the room, looking at our entwined hands with a perplexed look. He got up and left the room and was gone just about up to the last moment, when suddenly every muscle in my body contracted and my eyes shut tight in pain. Eva was coming and Alec wasn't there. Little did the doctors realize, nor did my husband, but I was waiting for him to return. I stalled, saying I refused to push if it was going to continue to hurt like it was. Some nurses in the corner chuckled. Then there he was, pushing the swinging doors open, a forced uncaring expression on his face. I grinned and let Eva into the world, a bright but tired smile on my face. It was unlike any other feeling I had ever felt before. When I was pregnant with her, Logans mother told me birth was painful and I thought that that was just some scare tactic or such. I realized too late that I should have paid more attention to it. I stalled once more, as I reached Alec's door. I lifted my hand to knock but it didn't move. I dropped my head, gave my baby girl, cooing in my arms a sigh and try again. Alec is already opening the door though. "Hey Max." I couldn't manage the same carefree tone as he did. He did have more practice with it though. "Hi..." and my voice trailed off as he let me in. Eva squealed the second she saw him and it shocked both of us. Alec's chest dropped down heavily as he looked at me. My lips trembled, longing to kiss him. How could just one stare into his troubled eyes have me forget my husband in one second. Go back, Max, go back to what is safe and right for you. Go back to...  
  
Logan. 


	2. Baby, I Love You

Time had passed so quickly and now his baby girl was four months old. It felt like she had just been born, placed in a light pink recieving blanket and laid in his arms, filling up only half the space it took for him to hold her. Logan remembers those first precious moments he spent with her, while Max was sleeping and the light trickled into the room, he swore the angel laying in his arms had been sent to rescue him. Months he spent worrying whether he'd make a good Dad when for the years he spent growing up he had pretty much fended on his own, without his own Father. Would he know how to learn to love another person as they would so love him? Looking up at the angel that had brung this tiny person into his life, he had the priveledge of accepting her, just as he had accepted Max. How could he refuse such a remarkable face? It beamed Max's like a mirror. Cooing was her speech and smiles were her dreams. If Logan could fill all her dreams, he'd do it in a second, not a thought at all upon relinquishing them. Eva was the dream he never could see. How did he get so lucky to find the girl of his dreams to bear the love of his life? Two for the price of one, Logan said with a smile as he walked to his desk. The exoskeleton was uncomfortable to get around in sometimes, when the plastic molding would rub against his hips. I am just glad Max had a girl, Logan thought positively, or else I'd be one huge let-down to my would be son. The computer turned on as Logan turned up the volume to the speakers.   
  
"You have email!" the computerized voice told him as he clicked the Inbox. 'I know something you don't know, Mr. Eyes Only. Don't even think for a second your disguises worked on me, I know who you are. More importantly, there is a person I think you know that you might want to know alittle about. Know an Eva Cale?' Logan stopped reading and threw his eyeglasses down to the ground and buried his face into hands. Oh God, his thoughts rushing quickly through his head, Eva. "I have it by very good authority the true father is..."  
  
'494 aka Alec.  
  
He couldn't pull himself together after Max left the apartment. She was crying and he was in shock. The baby was non-chablant, totally clueless but never the less adorable in her pink leather baby carrier. Her binky rounded her mouth like it were glued to her lips but still little giggles escaped. Alec took a seat in front of her and stared. True X-5 style, the child stared back. What a kid, Alec thought with a smile, cocky already without even needing to speak. She had light blonde hair and green eyes, just like his eyes. They were round and penetrating, like Max's. Nothing about the child looked like Logans, but thank God the guy was stupid. In the bag Max left by the door was a book, sticking out just far enough for him to see. 'Blackie the Bear Goes to the Zoo'. Alec found it so odd that while this kid was being read bedtime stories, he was learning to become a killing machine with handbooks teaching the manuever that stops brain function. It took 15 minutes before Alec found it in himself to lift Eva out of her carseat. She was so light in his arms and nearly immediatly she found her way to his shoulder, molding herself comfortably against his body. Quickly after, Eva spit the binky out of her mouth and began nibbling on his shoulder, slobbering and gurgling like a dog. At first disgusted, Alec soon rested on the couch and let the girl do what she wanted. If she were anything like Max, which Alec figured she was, she might dropkick him to the floor if he tried moving her.   
  
"You don't happen to want that binky back, do ya?" Alec asked, hoping maybe a hand signal may be raised to answer. The child didn't know anything of what he was saying and in a wierd way, that was fine. "Logan nice to you?" he continued with the conversation, "he better be. Cause-" he lifted Eva off him so he could look into her pudgy little face, "I love you too." In that small second, Alec swore he saw a smile. Maybe that meant I love you in baby speak. What a beautiful child Eva was. Thank God for....  
  
Max.  
  
*(The more reviews I get for the story, the more I will write it. What did ya think? Tell me!!!!!!!!!!)* 


	3. Completly Lost

Alec lips against hers; their bodies pressed closely; it almost hypnotized her into thinking it was that day all over again. The day that started all of this. Worry shredded at Max's mind. Where was all of this emotion spilling out of? Hadn't the hormone cup runneth over or was this real? And if this was actually real, what was she going to do? Divorce Logan? And if she divorces Logan, he'll want custody of Eva. But what happens when Max has to tell Logan that Eva never really was his after all? If love really is all there is, then why was it tilting Max's world up-side down? Max ran through the back alleys towards the sky spindle, where she did all her thinking. As she got closer, Max realized how long it had been since she had visited this place. She was 7 months pregnant with Eva, after finding out that Lydecker was murdered, she needed to clear her head and get the feeling of being rid of the man who ruined her life. You will never know that kind of fear, she promised the child growing inside her, I won't let them scare you. But as much as Max wanted that kind of protection for her baby, the chances that the child of two X-5's wouldn't make a great find for criminals in the black market was stupid to disregard. During that night, Max cried harder than she ever had cried before.   
  
Staying with Logan was Eva's only surety to lead a safe, normal life. Who knows, Max thought, maybe once all the bad guys are gone, I'll have another baby. Max walked up into the spiraled staircase and ran to the top. She stood in the doorway at the top and sighed, giving into the memory of the day she met Ben up here. Darn it, Max groaned wishing she could just make these feelings disapear. She couldn't have fallen in love with...  
  
Alec.  
  
Alec spent more than half his time with Eva searching through handbooks and manuals on taking care of babies. He had no idea what a diaper was and how to apply it to the child or even how your supposed to hold her. All Alec knew was that now Eva was crying and he could not get her to stop. She was so upset that her face was beet red, tears spilling in streams down her face.  
  
"Shh, Eva, it's okay!" Alec told her as he searched frantically in the books, "I'll figure out why your crying soon." More wailing. Alec was quickly realizing that when this kid wanted something, she wasn't willing to wait for it. But how was he supposed to know what to do? He was trained to snap necks, configure procedures for assassinations, not how to change diapers or get a human baby to stop crying. In frustration, Alec dropped the diaper bag to the floor, watching as a bottle of milk roll towards his baby. The child quieted as she stared and waited til it came to her. Alec smiled proudly.   
  
"You want that?" The little girl started to wail a bit more. "Okay, its all yours!" he exclaimed, picked up the bottle and gave it to her. It toddled around her mouth before settling in. Quiet. Alec fell onto the couch and reclined tiredly, watching Eva sip the milk in one long gulp. "I guess people aren't born parents, Eva." he spoke with a friendly tone, "You are the ones that teach them." This was one lesson Alec took with a grin on his face. How could he share this blessing with one other though? How could he share with.....  
  
Logan.  
  
The things Logan were feeling were unreal. He was scared, he was hurt and he was angry. Only each one of the those feelings were focused upon three different people. Every nerve in his body twinged at the thought of his little girl being hurt. But then the anger seered. She wasn't his little girl. The hurt returned quickly. Or was she his little girl? Could Max have really lied to him? He was desperate to call her up, to ask her to pick up Eva and to keep her safe. In its sad reality though, an X-5 with their feline DNA, would protect their young at all costs so Eva would be safe with Alec. Logan would be no help to her. But he wanted to be.   
  
Logan couldn't be sure to trust his feelings right now, all he knew was he wanted to get out of this house Max and him had prepared to make their home. Everything was tainted now. He'd go see Matt Sung, get a trace on that email or talk to Sebastian for any solace whatsoever. Anything to get out of here. Anything to figure this all out. Anything but see or be reminded of.....  
  
Max. 


	4. Truth

There was no reason for the way she was treating him, except for being insecure and scared about the way she was beginning to feel. She'd felt like this before once but it was Logan on her mind and Logan was safe. Logan was the home base she'd been rooting for. Alec was 3rd base, a dart of lust and could it well be- love?   
  
"You there, boo? You look straight up trippin'." Orignal Cindy pointed out as she sat beside Max at the Jam Pony break room. Usually full around this time, there was an odd number of workers talking in the corner but no one else. Max had explained the entire Eva ordeal to O.C. just a month after her birth but she was the only one who knew - besides Alec of course. She could talk so freely with her about it, she felt she should be paying her for therapy sessions.   
  
"Its just a thing thats been going on...recently." Max said, but quickly realized that what she said really didn't make sense. She started over. "Something I didn't- I really didn't expect."  
  
"You ain't pregnant again, sista? Are you?" Max laughed.   
  
"No!" she exclaimed and buried her hands over her face. "Eva is it. I mean, IT!"  
  
"So whats the dealio? Cause it sounds like your givin' Original Cindy here the runn'around." Max reclined on the backside of her hand and smiled at nothing in particular. She couldn't hide what she felt inside her, no matter how wrong she knew it was. "I'm about to smack you if you don't start spillin' it soon!"  
  
"I'm in love." Max said, frankly and finally with some freedom.  
  
"With Logan, yeah, I know." Original Cindy replied like she was reminding Max. Max shook her head cautiously, the smile swept off her face as she reminded herself as well.   
  
"I can't explain it, Cin. Its just over these past months, I've been really thinking about someone else. Someone..."  
  
"God, girl, you ain' talkin' about Alec, are you?" Max really wasn't surprised Cindy got it right off the bat. Whenever Alec walked into work, it took more than just Sketchy coming up to her and asking her advice for a present for his girlfriend to drift her focus from his walking over to his locker and sitting down to put away his things. It took more than Normal yelling at her for being late to get her head out of the clouds whenever their eyes met. It took more than sleep to get that dream of Eva resting on his chest on a hammock as they sway in the wind.   
  
"I love him." Max smiled into her hands, "I really love him." She just can't tell.....  
  
Logan.  
  
"Is there anything else I can do to help Eyes Only, Logan?" said the Asian man in the crisp Armani suit right before shutting the door of the McDonalds bathroom. Logan looked up from his wallet, the picture of Eva and Max beneath the plastic coat, and gave Matt a nod.   
  
"Nah, thanks. I got to get this over to him as soon as possible though so I'll see ya later." Matt left with a wave as Logan stared back into the eyes of his wife. 'God, Max, what have you done?' he sighed, his heart dropping low in his chest. Shutting the wallet, Logan opened the folder Matt had given him and looked into the file marked 'Eva Cale', her birth records and all her check-up files. He couldn't go on living without knowing whether or not. It was yes or no, he just wasn't sure yet how to react if a 'yes' was the answer. He just couldn't imagine a life of waking in the morning to a child's cry that was not his own. Or wiping up after a little girl had poured a bowl of spaghetti on her head if it wasn't his own little girl. Those were moments he could log away in his mind forever, to tell her when she was older, saying how well Daddy took care of her. Of how much Daddy loved her. Logan shuttered and closed the folder.   
  
"No!" he yelled aloud, thinking no one would hear. Just then, two feet appeared from behind the second stall. Logan stared, expecting the worst. It couldn't be the emailer. It couldn't. The boots were just standing there now, not moving. What was he waiting for? Logan got beside the sink and hailed for the man to come out, yelling loudly that he was armed. The boots did not move.   
  
"What are you waiting for?!" Logan shouted, anxiously. He couldn't wait to clobber the guy and drag him off for questioning. The boots were slowly moving forward now. Logan lifted the folder up but silently scoffed to himself. Clobber him with the folder? Brilliant, just brilliant. He almost wished he was packing heat right now, just in case. But he had lied, though it was sort of stupid to leave without one. This entire day had him screwed up. The handle was moving now.  
  
"Come on, out!" Logan said and lifted out his army knife. Not a solid guard but good enough for now.   
  
"Don't hurt me!" spoke the voice of probably a very scared elderly man. Logan, alittle embarassed, snuck out before the stall door opened. Figuring he could have been alittle more tactful in getting a response from 'boots', he grew angry at himself and stormed out of the McDonalds. He'd get over to the hospital with the folder, visit Dr. Carr. Finally he'd know who Eva belonged to. Him or......  
  
Alec. 


	5. Troubling Circumstances

'Give me a hurricane, give me a tornado, give me the insistent babbling of Sketchy when he's drunk, anything but my little girl screaming her head off and me not knowing why.' Even as Alec thought through all the possibilities, things made no sense. He had reached a breaking point, a limit he didn't realize he had until he could not cure his daughters uncomfortable situation. He'd have to call Max. He dialed her pager and waited by the phone, all the while blinding himself from Eva's bloodshot eyes. Finally after what seemed like forever did she call.  
  
"Max, I need help." he talked desperately into the phone. Light-heartedly, Max  
  
let out a short laugh. He could see where being panicked was funny, but he  
  
didn't call to be made fun of. Still he had to keep in mind this came like second  
  
nature to her now, that it took practice.  
  
"She too much for you already?" she asked as Alec moved from the sofa to the  
  
bathroom where he could hear better.   
  
"I admit it, child care was not what I scored high in at the Manticore school of  
  
hard knocks." Max sighed. Alec's intentions weren't to make her feel bad about  
  
letting him see Eva. But now that he had made it sound like that, he was almost  
  
afraid she'd never let him alone with her again.  
  
"I'm sorry. I just wanted you to-" 'Be with your daughter' he finished  
  
non-verbally, 'just say the truth, Max, say she's mine.' After all this time, Max still wouldn't admit it aloud. Scared, possibly, that she'd want to believe it as he  
  
wanted her to. He wasn't stranger to not verbalizing important things. He could  
  
never admit he loved Max. But it wasn't a formality he was obliged to take for  
  
granted.   
  
"And I appreciate it. Just give me some help here." Max began to ask him if she  
  
was fed. "If you mean that liquid stuff. Yes, she has stuffed her face." Max then  
  
asked if he had burped her. Alec gave alittle chuckle, "Burp her?"  
  
"Didn't you look in those books I brought?" Max said, alittle on the angry side.  
  
Apparently this burping was very important. Alec said very little but a 'sorry' and  
  
'no'. "If you don't burp her, she gets tummy aches."  
  
"Human babies need to learn how to speak quicker." he grumbled, peeking out  
  
the bathroom door to check and see if she had exploded yet. She was quite red  
  
but still alive.   
  
"I know, but just pat her back until she burps. She should stop crying. And then  
  
change her."  
  
"Change her.....?" Everything had a term to it and Alec was quite clueless to  
  
them all, to his own dismay.  
  
"Her diaper, Alec." Max replied impatiently. Alec sighed deeply, his hand falling to  
  
his lap. He was so overwhelmed, it wasn't funny. "Your going to be fine. I'm only  
  
working 'til five." Alec whimpered alittle over the phone to be dramatic. It made  
  
Max laugh and he loved to hear her laugh. A smile appeared across his face like  
  
he hadn't even gone through these past months at all. For a second he could  
  
almost believe Max was his wife and Eva was with them, together as a family.   
  
"Get here soon," he begged, suddenly finding himself mouthing 'I love you'  
  
behind the receiver.   
  
"I'll be there." True to her style, Max didn't say goodbye to Alec but just hung up  
  
the phone. He still said goodbye though and without any resistance, a hushed  
  
'Love you, .....  
  
Max.  
  
Time was nearing the end of her shift and night was casting its shadow on  
  
the streets of Seattle. Max was on her way over to deliver her very last package  
  
in the suburbs of a pretty decent neighborhood. Though the dark was no  
  
challenge to her eyesight, Max found herself blinded and aloof to the life  
  
surrounding her. She even biked past the drop site for the package by a block.  
  
After getting the signature, thanked them and got back unto her bike, Max  
  
checked her watch. Quarter after five and she was going to be another 20   
  
minutes til reaching Jam Pony, five to get out of her work clothes that smelled  
  
nasty, two minutes to punch out and another 10 minutes to reach Alec's  
  
apartment. That left her approximately 50 minutes late to Alec's and an hour late  
  
home. Logan would worry about her if she were that late. She'd have to call him  
  
and then she'll tell Alec when she'll arrive. Taking a quick glance to the back  
  
room, checking to make sure Normal was still busy counting tomorrow's  
  
packages and sorting them out for individual deliverers, Max grabbed the phone  
  
and slid around to gain some privacy on the other wall. Quickly, she dialed home.  
  
"Logan, I'm going to be late." Max said after he had greeted her with a 'Hi'. "I  
  
took a little to long on my last run and I still need to pick up Eva."   
  
"At Alec's?" Logan asked, out of the blue. Max swore she'd told him the night  
  
before she was dropping her off at Alec's for the day. Suspicions arose quickly  
  
when there was silence for a minute on Logan's end.   
  
"Yeah, he offered last week at work. Remember? I told you."  
  
"I remembered. Listen," Logan replied, starting to sound very strange to Max, "I  
  
got something we need to talk about when you get home." Max gulped,  
  
suspecting something bad had happened.  
  
"Is there trouble? Someone after you?" Max asked quickly, hoping maybe he'd  
  
tell her something just to help clear her mind. But he didn't. He wouldn't share a  
  
thing. Max's fears grew to an even deeper low as the silence returned. There  
  
weren't many silences like this between the two of them. It literally scared her.  
  
"Ok....," Max began, "well, I'm going to get Eva and I'll be home soon." Logans  
  
goodbye was shady and very unlike him.   
  
All Max could think of was somehow....somehow.....HE KNEW.  
  
With that one night, when Max had broken in his apartment, Logan knew he was already in too deep. When emotions mixed with business, he knew he was in trouble. When he thought he could marry Max with no strings attached, he must have known all along he was asking for too much. Logan's eyes teared up, hopeless to stop himself from sinking deeper in thought. His entire life as up to this moment, all that telling himself he'd find a woman who wouldn't just use him for his money, has turned out to be all some mirage. But what a lovely desert he was lost in, with Max to saturate his ever-growing longing for affection and love.   
  
'Eva Cale; mother Max Cale; father unknown  
  
Blood type; undeciphered as of yet'  
  
He had been lied to by the woman he ever truly loved; the woman he had risked his life for. He gave so much to keeping the two of them together. Maybe his believing so much in true love only made it more the 'Santa Claus' it really ever was.   
  
The phone rang, startling Logan from his look out into the streets of Seattle.   
  
"Hello?" Logan answered and waited for a reply. Nothing but dead air for a second. Quickly, Logan switched the reciever to the other ear, using his right hand to start a track on the call. "Who is this?"   
  
"You think she ever really loved you?" spoke the gruff, familar voice. Someone in his past, Logan placed immediatly, but who? Logan had 20 more seconds until the track would be final. He'd have to keep him talking.  
  
"What did you think I'd do after you sent me that email? That I'd leave her?"  
  
"Has the thought never crossed your mind today at least once? Or are you that disillusioned?"  
  
"I know Max loves me," Logan exclaimed, feeling like he had just lied to himself. "How'd you find out about Eyes Only?"  
  
"You told me," leaving a short chuckle, "didn't expect me to live long enough to expose you, did you?"   
  
"What do you think you are going to accomplish?"  
  
"Call it- unfinished business." Five more seconds before locking it down.   
  
"Do I know you?"   
  
"You'll want to after I tell you your 'daughter' will die without my help." Without any notice, the man hung up. A sick feeling filled Logans mind and gut, not able to believe whom he just might have been speaking to. Someone who was supposed to be dead.   
  
"Donald Lydecker." A name with no number. But what he had told Logan would be enough to encourage the investigation. His daughter will die without Lydeckers help? Max would rather die herself than give that man their child. Logan dropped his head down, 'I mean, her child.' Wheeling back to the window, Logan gave more attention where no attention purposed to be in a dreary world he was beginning to feel no longer needed a warrior with no strength to stand. 


	6. Harsh Realities

Disclaimer: the show is cancelled so I don't think Cameron and Eglee will really mind if I use their characters to write a story, am I right?  
  
Authors note: I have had the worst writers block! And, not to mention, horrible pains in my hands because of my stupid carpal tunnel thing. But here is the next, thrilling installment of 'Beginnings' and probably, I will admit, the one you have been waiting for. The Truth Is Out was just the start. Here is one of the last concluding chapters in the Beginnings saga. Thanks for reading up to here so far and enjoy! (I hope!)  
  
***  
  
Alec's pace hastened with every moment that passed. Max was very late. She couldn't use courteousy just once, to call him and tell him when she'd be arriving, could she? It'd probably be against her character or something. But it wasn't against his. He simply lacked the patience to wait. Alec dialed only four numbers into his phone when there was a impatient knock on the door. Ready to remind her of what stress he had been put through waiting for her, Alec swung open the door to a tired, worried looking Max.  
  
"Alec, oh god...." Max breathed as she fell into his open arms, her brows knitted worriedly. Alec couldn't believe how holding her made him feel a million different things yet none of them compelled him to hold her tightly back. Reciprocating could break the rules and not reciprocating could make her pull away from him, which he didn't want to happen. Or maybe he was still mad about her being so late.   
  
"Whats happened?" Alec finally got his voice to ask. Max didn't just fall into anybodys arms -maybe Logans but never his. Whatever caused her to feel so hopeless, so vulnerable was wearing on his mind. Massaging her hair in his hands, Alec waited for her to calm before walking her to the sofa, where Eva lay asleep, her little arms raised above her head in fists. Max reached down and gently stroked her brow and the tear stains on her cheeks. Alec glanced at Max for a reply. Only by Max's returned expression, he felt less like knowing it at all.  
  
"Alec, Logan knows he's not Eva's real father." Max sobbed tentatively, forcing every word out in whispers. Alec fought back a sigh that he knew Max would have found arrogant. He just wasn't sure what came through her mind when she walked in through his door. He didn't feel sympathy for her. She didn't deserve his sympathy after everything she put him through. So why did he want so badly to hold her in his arms?   
  
"Well, what are you going to do?" He managed to spit out as Max's eyes welled up with tears. It pained him to see her so broken; so hopeless. Her face was like a little childs who did something bad and didn't want to bear the punishment. Her back doubled over as she buried her face into his lap. Alec caught his breath as his hand reached to touch her silky auburn hair but pulled back instinctively. It was so hard to keep control of himself with her so near but he knew he had to. Things weren't like that with them.  
  
"I've got to tell him the truth." Max sniffled as she raised her head up, wiping the tears from her eyes. "He deserves it." Max's eyes searched his face for something. Possibly permission. He'd given plenty of signs that he never agreed of this before. Maybe that was what made the decision so much easier for her. Knowing she was doing something no one else would agree with. Perhaps it was so no one else would be under fault if the plan went sideways. Teamwork was heavily engraved in Manticore but Max swerved away from anything remotely 'teamy'. It just was never right to lie to the ones you love and even though Alec didn't grow up in a place that promoted love, he knew better than to lie to family.   
  
"He's not the only one," Alec said bluntly, nodding towards Eva lying asleep on the floor. Alec could see the hurt fill Max's eyes as she looked at her daughter, an example of what was right staring her smack dab in the face. Max picked her up, cradling her to her chest. Eva's eyes stirred open for a few seconds, settled upon Max's face and then peacefully slipped back closed. Alec smiled at the scene, making carefully sure Max didn't see.   
  
"Alec, if I could take back all thats happened these past months, you know I would." Alec's hand was slowly coming to a stop on Max's back, her warm body hard to fight off touching. Her smile returned for a few brief moments as she moved closer, resting inside the space that set them apart.   
  
They were like he had dreamed- a little family.  
  
"I wouldn't."  
  
***  
  
Logan pulled at his hair, angsting over the passing moments that led him closer and closer to inevitable truth. He had no right to feel remorse for wanting this. He was simply scared out of his mind, for the very first time, to hear the truth. He certainly never felt apprehensive about the truth before, and those circumstances put him in dangers path. Logan crashed through the doorway to his living room with a maddened charge, pacing closer and closer to the front door. Looking up, he reminisced as he glared up through the sunroof Max had broken into the very first night they met. And to the right, his sofa where Max had fallen asleep on more times than he could count. Things, he knew for certain, would never be the same ever again in this house.   
  
"Logan," Max's voice called in the quiet, Logan going to it on instinct. His breath stopped halfway out as he saw her. She was still so beautiful to him, it overtook his mind every time. "All right, let's talk." With a subtle nod, Logan took Eva, who was lying in her baby carrier on the floor next to Max's feet, and the three of them walked into the living room. Barely containing his nerves, he took his glasses off and set them on the table next to the folder Matt Sung had gotten for him that Max now sat eyeing steadily and aggressively. Two little words at the top seemed to be her main focus. 'Paternity Results'.  
  
"I got an email," Logan started as he imagined Max would have nothing to say for right now. A print-out of the email lay next to the folder and Max slowly reached out and grabbed it. Her hand fell upon her mouth as she read it. "And I recieved a phone call, who I know was also from this semi-mysterious emailer." Max looked up, waiting. "From Donald Lydecker." Her face deadpanned.  
  
"Lydecker..." He'd expected her to react like that, since for the past 11 months he had been known dead. He continued, "seems to think Eva is not my daughter." His voice sounded so hollow in the stagnant air between them. She wasn't looking at him and he could find nothing more to say. She'd answered everything with her silence.  
  
"Let me explain," Max pleaded as her eyes fell into his tentatively, "because it's not what you think." Tears were dripping down her face, tears Logan no longer cared to wipe away for her. "It happened while I was in my heat. It was an accident," Logan tore his gaze from her face and down to Eva. "I am so sorry..." So she really had lied to him. Lied to Eva. And the worst part of it was she barely batted an eye.  
  
"No," he grumbled, trying not to hear another word, "I don't think so." He could now only remember how he'd watched her look over at Alec those nights he'd pick her up from his apartment and how sometimes he'd feel jealous she didn't look at him that way. Her own husband. "You love him, don't you?" If there was a way to hide his insecure feelings, to hide the hurt in his voice, he would have. She didn't deserve to hear his heart tearing in two. Max's face met his for a brief second, guilt present in her eyes and something else. Confusion.  
  
"Yes." she answered flatly, sitting there like she hadn't said anything at all. A sudden gasp escaped Logans mouth followed by heaving sobs. He couldn't hold back what Max had brought out of him any longer. Max stood up from the sofa, grabbing Eva off the floor. Logan could feel his heart lunge out of his chest as Max walked out of that room, taking along the one thing in his life he loved unconditionally. Taking along with her his life.  
  
***  
  
Maybe she was bred to be difficult, to break hearts. And to move on without feeling a thing. To go from one mission to the next. Now she wasn't sure what her mission was. Being with Logan had been her mission for so long. Then it was taking care of Eva. And somewhere between all that, things got twisted. She did have another mission in mind but how could she even be sure of it? She wanted Alec, Eva and her to be a family. Badly. Only Alec didn't love her. Or did he? Max gripped the metal roof of the Space Needle and closed her eyes. Dark Angel, its time to take that leap of faith... 


	7. Out Of The Rain

South Market was darker tonight than it have ever been. And emptier. Even with some people walking around her, the thugs and the drugs, the men and the women, Max was more alone than she had been in such a long time. Eva was snuggled tightly in her carrier, gurgling and squealing over the bright lights above her. Max began remembering when she once felt like her daughter. Everything was magical. Then came the landslide. Then came reality. Before Max knew it, she was less human or normal than she had pretended. She was fighting like a soldier, acting like a soldier and running for her life. And why? Because she wanted to please some self-righteous, wheelchair bound hermit that recruited her to act out his save-the-world schemes. It cost her more than she ever allowed herself to realize. Maybe even Zach and Tinga would still be here. Max's eyes welled with tears. Those were the decision she had made though. And those were the repercussions. Sick how many people can die under your own whims, even when it was never your intention to hurt them.  
  
Rain started to mesh with the tears falling down Max's cheek, making Max sprint to somewhere dry, to keep Eva warm. Suddenly, she realized she was only a few blocks away from Alec's. She had been walking to his apartment, subconciously. Looking around her, Max grabbed a piece of cardboard lying in the street.  
  
"Hey!" an old man grumbled at her, filthy and smelling like week old garbage. Max turned her nose from him and coughed. It was obvious she had just stolen the doorway to his house. Frowning, Max gave it back, revealing Eva.  
  
"Oh," the man said, still grumbling, "go ahead, I guess. Keep the lil' sprout dry." Max reluctantly smiled at him and walked back into the rain. She was getting drenched but at least Eva wouldn't get sick. Or could she get sick? As a young baby, Eva showed extreme immunity to alot of what normal children get, like croup and colds that Logan would contract. She never got sick. And whats stranger was that she almost seemed to understand what people were saying to her and around her. Could Alec's and her genes really have made the next step in what Manticore had created? It was creepy to think about but not crazy.   
  
"Well, Eva, here we are," Max announced as they took up the steps to his apartment. Max bumped the buzzer with her shoulder and a large woman came out of a doorway from down the hall.   
  
"Who ya here for?" the woman asked, edgelessly. Her hair was up in curlers that seemed to be falling over into her eyes and her bathrobe barely covered the distendence of her body.   
  
"Apartment 44?" Max replied, hoisting up Eva. The woman jumped up and began opening the door after noticing. It was her luck Eva was so cute sometimes. Got her to pass into alot of Sectors sometimes too, just because of the distraction she makes.  
  
"What an adorable baby!" she exclaimed, reaching out to touch Eva's little face the second the two walked inside. Eva looked at her mom grumpily, almost saying 'Get this woman away from me!'. Max chuckled then thanked the woman as she walked up the stairwell. Her feet ached from peddling her bike for Jam Pony and walking around after leaving Logans, unable to take Eva on her motorcycle since it began raining. And now taking four fleets of stairs, carrying Eva, seemed too big a task. Even though she had slept five hours the previous night, Max knew she would sleep again tonight.   
  
***  
  
Alec had a feeling he'd end up seeing more of Max tonight so he had laid out some warm milk for when she arrived. And a bottle for Eva too although he wasn't sure she drank regular milk. Anyway, if she was anything like her mom and him, she did. What with the seizures the transgenics got.   
  
Once more, the questions stirred inside his mind. Would she be like them? Transgenic? He didn't know if wanted her to be or not. Max had explained to him how Case, Tinga's son, had showed advanced technical skills and how Lydecker had tried to take him back to Manticore. When he heard it from her, Max was in her last trimester and for nights and nights he had nightmares that Eva would be transgenic as well and Manticore would try and take her away. He tried to tell himself he was just being paranoid and that Lydecker was dead, that he could no longer do anything to them. But something inside him felt danger and years of experiance told him to never doubt that gut reaction. Max would have a different opinion, though.  
  
"Alec, open up, its me." Max called out from behind the door, sounding very drained. Opening the door, he took Eva from her arms and then took her hand and walked her to the couch. She refused to sit though, saying she didn't want to soak his sofa. Alec shoved her down and walked to grab the milk. Max was still sitting, too tired to fight back. Eva began to cry.   
  
"She's very tired." she sighed, "Its been a long night." Alec picked her up and quietly sat down on the sofa besides Max. With his other arm, he pulled a throw from behind him and wrapped it haply around Max's shoulders. She smiled and snuggled next to him. No doubt it had been a long night, Alec thought, but hopefully he could make it a comfortable end to a weary day. Working his way slowly towards a wet tendril of hair covering her eyes and pulling it away, Alec let her see him smile.  
  
"Are you cold?" he asked her, worried. She shivered alittle in response and nodded. Getting up with Eva in his arms, Alec walked to the bathroom, grabbing some towels. When he returned, Max had laid her head down upon some pillows, curling her body into the fetal position. There was no doubt in Alec's mind that he loved her when he saw her and these feelings of blissful contentment filled his body. He nudged her softly, rousing her. Max lifted herself up, her eyes meeting his as she stood. Taking the towels, Max glared with diminished strength but steady.  
  
"Thanks," she spoke, tension filling quickly. Alec's heart beat raced. He could already see himself kissing her, embracing the cold from her body. From being so tired, Max tripped and placed a hand on his shoulder to keep on her feet. Alec turned his head to face her. She looked back. Where they were now could only have been a dream. Eva stopped whimpering as the two embraced in a kiss. The passion Alec felt was so strong he thought he could explode. Max pulled back, a smile playing subtly upon her lips.  
  
"Thanks again," she joked, rousing laughter between them. Even Eva giggled. Max clutched the towels to her chest and walked into the bathroom, shutting it quietly behind her. Alec shook his head abruptly, hoping he hadn't just dreamt he'd actually kissed Max. Hoping he hadn't just imagined she had actually kissed him back. Him. Setting down Eva on the sofa, Alec laid his head down on the pillow still fragrant with her scent. Sweet, watery dew. He shut his eyes and let the scent fill his mind. Before he knew it, he was walking downstairs to the park two streets away. Some little children were still out playing around a broken water main. He looked up and for the first time since being in Seattle, he saw stars. It was so unreal. Suddenly, in the corner of his eye, he spotted this beautiful woman in a flowy white gown, satin gloves and her lips rimmed in crimson. It was Max.   
  
"Is this a dream?" Alec asked her as she grabbed his hands for a dance. She spun him around, picking up speed. She was dazzling. Her mouth opened, leaving him to anticipate an answer. Screaming. Alec loosed himself out of fear from the sound that he began falling slowly from her grasp.   
  
"Ah!" Alec let out, as he realized that he was only dreaming, lying on the floor next to the sofa. Max was leaning on the couch with Eva cradled in her arms. She was clearly frightened over something. He scrambled up off his knees. "Whats going on?" he asked quickly. Max's eyes filled with tears.   
  
"Somethings wrong with Eva...." she whimpered. Alec's eyes bulged, fearing the worst. He looked unto his daughters closed eyes. Even as Max shook her lightly, she stayed asleep. Alec checked her pulse.  
  
"She's not dead," he told Max, comfortingly, "but we need to get to see a doctor." Max violently shook her head in protest.   
  
"No, thats just what he needs!" Alec stared confused. Just what who needs? Max dropped her head, "Logan got an anonymous email and phone call." The more she waited in telling him the more impatient he got. His daughter was unconscious and somehow Max knew something that got in the way of helping her. He wanted information now.  
  
"So? What was it about? Does he know who it was?"  
  
"It came from Lydecker. He says Eva is in trouble." She sobbed looking at Eva even for a moment, "This is it, I guess." Alec never let fear get the better of him. He knew in most circumstances he was more agile, more cunning and smarter than the enemy. But now the one who had made him all that held his daughters life in his hands. He was scared.  
  
***  
  
Authors Note: The plot is thickening and theres only a chapter or two left in the series! Want more? Need some reviews!!!!!! 


	8. In Fear, In Sadness

Disclaimer: This chapter has some drinking in it. Let the reader be advised.  
  
Two pills and a glass of heavy vodka would get Logan through tonight. At least make him sleep some. Tommorow he'd have an empty house to wake up to. An empty breakfast table and no goodbye kiss. 'Pain' couldn't describe how he felt thinking about that. Going back to Logan Cale, the lonely and depressed. With a lift of his glass, Logan drank down the pills with a toast to the new happy couple, Alec and Max. May they be as happy as he is right now. The pills grazed downwards through his throat and hitting his stomach with a groan. Sleeping pills and vodka. Somewhere in his mind he recalled a word of caution about taking the two together. Oh well, he sighed, down the hatch. The vodka burned going down but it subsided. Blankly, Logan stared at the vase in the corner. He was back in the delivery room with Max, going through a breathing excercise they learned in lamaze class. Her hair was bundled above her forehead, matted with sweat. Gently, he swept his hand over it, smiling sweetly at her as she squeezed his other hand tightly. Contractions were coming like clockwork now. Eva would be here any moment. The doctor, Dr. Carr, suddenly tapped him on the shoulder. Reluctantly, Logan got up and stood beside him.  
  
"There was a disturbance in the hospitals records room and a man not on staff was caught breifly on camera coming out, "he said, very matter of fact, "I don't know what he was looking for but the drawer to the 'C's' was wide open." Logan brushed his hand over his mouth and let go of Max's hand. She looked up, wondering but he told her everything was okay. He couldn't have her worry at this time. She was already tense as it was.  
  
Leaving that hospital room to find the man would be a mistake and he knew it. But he did anyway. He had asked if anything had been removed and the worker in charge said that only the drawer laid open and that the files were still in their places. Everything was fine. When he came back, Alec was resting beside Max, holding her hand as Eva laid on her chest. He'd missed her birth. When he walked in, Max smiled, glaring warily.   
  
"She beautiful," Logan said immediatly, "just like you." A blush of pink spread over her cheeks. Alec got up and yawned. Another moment spoiled perfectly.  
  
"I'll send the doctor bill for my hand later, Max. See ya," he causully interrupted as he got up and brushed the wrinkle from his coat. Looking at Logan, he turned and said, "Good lookin' kid, Logan. Take care of her." Logan remembered back on how he thought that was a weird thing to say, 'Take care of her'. He just shrugged it off then, figuring he was new with the idea of parents and life in general. Now he knew though. And it sickened him. Why Max did what she did wasn't entirely clear to him. Probably doing what every woman he's ever been with has done. Use him for his money. He thought Max didn't care about that kind of thing. He actually believed she loved him. But that was then. That was when the world revolved around him and his perfect little life. How odd that life can change that much in just one instant, where the truth comes out and your left with nothing but the stain of what once was.   
  
Or maybe just a couple of sleeping pills and a glass of vodka.  
  
***  
  
A tearful Max ran to the phone, stopping Alec's rampage to call the doctor. She couldn't let Lydecker take her child, like he had taken Tinga and Brin. Test her like some lab rat and turn her into a soldier- a killer without mercy. Eva was so young and Max needed her so badly. Alec could understand her feelings to protect her weren't because she didn't desire her to get well. But he wasn't one to let a situation go unsettled. Old Manticore training. A glare down between the two as Max blocked him from making the call told Max a fight was to begin.   
  
"Max, nothing will happen, now stop this!" Alec yelled, rolling his hands into fists. They hadn't fought physically in awhile now and Max's new feelings for him blinded her techniques. Coming at him, she threw a sloppy left hook, just grazing the bottom of his chin. Before she knew it, Alec took ahold of her left elbow, her right arm and with his leg, tripped her to the ground and held her there while he lingered for a moment, panting. "I don't want Eva to get taken either, but this isn't accomplishing anthing."  
  
"I am not letting you do this!" Max growled, forcing Alec off and standing erect to fight him. Alec looked tiredly at her, eyes heavy with defeat. Not his defeat, but hers. Max put down her arms accordingly, knowing that this was it. She pretty much had no say now. He was holding his cell phone to his ear after speed dialing the doctor. Max fell upon the couch next to Eva, a blank look upon her face, staring at the wall before her, hazily aware of the thoughts floating through her mind. It was then that, strangely, she felt the sofa shake. She looked down. Eva was having a seizure.  
  
"Alec, she's seizing!" Max gasped, rolling onto her side and gripping Eva's tiny arms in her hands. Alec came over her,worry and panic racing to and fro in his eyes as he paced, with cell phone in hand. Suddenly, he slammed it down in anger. No answer. Max quickly asked for some milk for Eva, hoping it might help her as it had helped other transgenics. He leapt over towards the counter and took in his hand a bottle. Max caressed Eva's forehead and nudged the bottles nipple around her mouth, to help her get a feel for it and to drink. She sucked it down, but slowly.   
  
"This is crazy," Alec finally said in the dead nights air, "We're leaving-right now." Max continued her vigil beside Eva, tears dripping down her face in fear. Fear of the worst. Fear she could die. Worser, fear Lydecker really held her daughters life in his murderous, grasping hands. Hands she knew only too well could also save her.  
  
"But there was no answer." Max said, her brow furrowed, "He may even be dead." She wouldn't put it past Lydecker to destroy any other options for them, if it meant getting what he wanted. Alec draped his hand over his face, rubbing it down to his neck. The look upon his face told Max he was running out of options.   
  
"Well, we can't just let her like this," he spoke, emotionally, "she's hurting." His eyes welled up with tears but he wiped them away before they could fall. He was desperate to stay strong. To be strong for her. Only all his tears and his words made her do was tear up herself. She walked over and into his arms, letting him hold her. Eva was quiet again, seizing only alittle, and sucking on the bottle every few moments. She couldn't go on much longer, this they knew. What they didn't- scared them.  
  
***  
  
Authors note:  
  
I have come down with writers block....again! I am glad I got out this much. So this is a short chapter but I'll make up for it. The next ones will be tear-breakers. Until then........ : ) 


	9. Blackmailed!

"Blackmailed!"  
  
  
  
***  
  
They could no longer assume security with Lydecker looking for them. They could only suspect he knew where they were - that they were being followed. That made Max even more tense. Now they were trapped inside the building, three stories high, with a sick child in her arms. Which meant only one thing; she'd have to trust him. Kind of hard with him staring out the window of the apartment with a look that could shatter anyones confidence.  
  
"The escape stairwell," he said, uneasy with his lips tightening shut into a frown. He opened the window, a heavy breeze hitting Max in the face. Eva's little legs were dangling over her stomach, bare and lifeless, probably instantly chilled. Her little cotton blanket wouldn't keep her very warm out in this, Max worried, no way she could just stop home though. Alec picked up something from the table beside him and stuffed it inside his pocket then added, "Its the only way, but not entirely sturdy."  
  
"Not entirely sturdy?" Max questioned, lifting a brow in dissatisfaction. He quickly shunned his face from her, stuck a foot out onto the escape and pounded it lightly. Max watched in wait.   
  
"Might hold," he said, assuring her with a smile, "but to be safe, I'll go first then you follow after I signal." Max threw back a sudden stare towards the door. Something was hitting it.   
  
"Alec!" she resounded harshly as the pounding grew more intense. Alec's eyes widened. The Devil was at their doorstep.  
  
"Give me Eva," Alec cried insistently, his arms reached out to take her. Max held her closer, shaking. The door was breaking at the seams in the middle. In a matter of moments, they'd be staring eye to eye. "Max, you can't save her in your arms, give her to me." Reluctantly, aided by the sound of the door cracking at its hinges, Max shoved Eva into Alecs hands, her blanket falling to a heap on the floor.   
  
"Just a minute, let me get dressed. I just got out of the shower." Max shouted at the door then turned to look out the window. Alec was almost to the bottom. Knowing she couldn't risk putting more weight on the already unsturdy stairwell, Max had to prepare herself for a fight. Or worse, guns.   
  
"Max!!!" He shouted desperatly. The door had fallen with a strong crack on the cement floor, hitting Alec's strategically placed couch. A man stepped out from the side but before she could see his face, she leaped out the window, completly ignoring the fire escape. She had aimed for the sky. And now she was in a plummet to the ground, falling faster than she expected. Of course, she really didn't anticipate the height in three seconds. But as quickly as she recovered her senses, Max took the first hold she could get on a steel bar, grabbed it and spun hard. The snap of the bolts loosening from the brownstones cement walls was enough to know she'd just taken away the man's way down to them. Max let off her grip and fell down hard on her feet. A strong urge to look up and catch the man powered over her for a moment. If it really was Lydecker, why'd he let them go so easily? Alec shouted urgently at her, bringing her mind away from what had just happened. The two went into a sprint, where and to whom they didn't know. Somewhere safe. Wherever that was....  
  
***  
  
  
  
He'd given them time to get away. Without a chase, where would a supposed-dead guy get his kicks? Of course he knew they had no where to go. And of course he knew Logan would get involved, as soon as he got out his drunken stupor. It was fun actually, being ahead of the game. He'd always enjoyed it, even as a child. Now all he had to do was wait for the pieces to fall into his strategically placed puzzleboard. Eva in Manticore hands, Max back in training and testing, Logan dead and 'Alec'...he had a special treat for X5-494.   
  
Killing was such a dull sport. After 30 years, all dead people look the same. Logan's probably wouldn't look any different if he hadn't been planning it all that time in hiding. But that hadn't been all he'd been up to. After all, there was a pregnant X-5 to look after, about to give birth to Manticore progeny, with a Manticore bred male to boot. And even Eyes Only, the great seerer of seerers, didn't catch on. But lies are never fun unless they come out. With patience and the stealth of technology, Donald Lydecker got the truth. And who could have estimated the truth could hold such a weighty ransom?  
  
***  
  
The sound of a hard pound on Logan's front door brought him back to consciousness, but not without first feeling the consequences of the heavy drinks he'd taken. Logan rolled down, face first into his pillow, growling and steadily waking himself up. It was 6 a.m., five hours since he'd passed out. Still it felt like he'd been out for days. Logan slowly moved his legs over with his hands, watching over the side for when they reached his carpet. Taking a firm hold on the bed posts, he looked around in a blurry stare for his wheelchair. Oh yeah, he remembered grumpily, I think I tossed that somewhere across the room. He looked some more, trying to get his eyesight to clear. The knocking at the door stopped and a key was now being jiggled around the lock. He didn't even care to discern who it could be. All he wanted was his head to stop swirling and his legs to start working.   
  
"Logan?" a familair voice called through the air. Logan straightened up and gulped. Asha. Just who he wanted to see him like this- a hungover mess. He struggled quickly around for his eyeglasses and a book to pretend to have been reading. Sliding the glasses on, Logan picked up Max's romance novel beside the bed and placed it in his lap. Asha came in just in time.  
  
"Hey, Logan. You alright?" she asked, moving around uncomfortably,"You didn't answer the door. I was beginning to think you'd forgotten." Logan squinted, nervously avoiding her eyes. He'd called her up last night, right before passing out, asking her to come over the following morning. He really didn't even know why he did it. Lonlieness, maybe.   
  
"I did," he admitted then with a sigh he muttered gingerly, "I had a long night...." Asha nodded and moved closer to his bed, standing at the end posts with her arms crossed over her chest. Her eyes trailed to the book.  
  
"'The Virgin Brides of Macon County'? Logan, I never knew you read those kind of books." she added with a look of shocked surprise on her face. Logan blushed and tossed the book to the floor.  
  
"Boredom." he said with a save, "I can't reach my wheelchair." Before he even had to ask, Asha walked to the corner and picked the fallen chair off of its side, setting it aright and rolling to the bed. Logan took again the bed posts behind him and with all his strength, plopped himself down onto the seat. Asha let out a small sigh.  
  
"So," she began, her blue eyes meeting his seductively, "where's Max?" Logan stopped in thought for a moment, hesistant to answer. He wish he knew. Quickly, though, he shook his head and smiled.  
  
"I never know with her," he said and rolled into the computer room. His head dipped down over the keyboard as he flipped the monitors and processor on. He'd have to pretend everything was alright and do it without flaw. Not like he ever had a problem with putting on a face. He'd doing it all his life. He was such a sham, even he didn't know when he was being fake. "Visiting her family, I think."  
  
"And she didn't ask you to come?" Asha asked immediatly, her eyes prying through his, looking for reasoning and doubtably finding none. "Thats strange." What Asha found strange, Logan found irritating. Suddenly he began asking himself why, even when drunk, he'd thought talking to Asha about any of this would make him feel better. He knew Asha's intentions were. They were transperant - she wanted him. Now came the task of getting her out of his apartment and inherantly, out of his life.   
  
"I really don't see where any of this is your business, Asha." Her expression went blank as her arms unfolded. Even though he knew he'd said what he wanted to say, it still felt hurtful and wrong. He kept his face null of regret though, his body barely showing signs of breath and his arms stiffened to his lap. He felt like a dummy.  
  
"Oh, fine." Asha spoke abruptly and nodded solemnly, "I'm sorry." Logan watched as Asha walked away and shut the door behind her. The sound echoed for a moment and settled inside Logan's mind, telling him he was alone. Maybe for the rest of his life. He didn't have to treat her like that. And why had he even stood up for Max? It wasn't protection for her but for him. Wasn't it? Logan typed in some random words in his mind into his internet search engine and waited. He'd typed in 'Help me'. In about 15 hours of 13,457 search results, he was bound to find something.   
  
He had all the time in the world.......  
  
***  
  
Authors Note:  
  
Ut oh. Review me and maybe my inner muse will stir up the ending. Press the lil purple button......now! 


	10. Hopeful

Disclaimer: Ha-ha! I have bought Dark Angel off Ebay and now I am the owner!   
  
: ( Actually, they aren't. They're still those retards Cameron and Eglee who were dumb and got rid of my favorite tv show!! No, I'm not bitter. Whatever made you think that?   
  
Well, its been a lot of work fleshing out this stories plot. It seems it may continue on for at least five or six more chapters. Short though, chapters I mean. The typing wears on my hands, cause I have carpal tunnel in both. Thanks to all my loyal readers. I am so happy you have been following this. It gives me a sense of purpose to my writing. With your continued support, I may actually finish this! SO please, if you get a chance, write a review. I don't mind mean ones. I just love honesty. I ask all of you to Beta me!   
  
Thanks again and so long......  
  
Rated: PG  
  
Plot: (for this chapter, folks) Max and Alec think up a plan to rid them of Lydecker and help Eva all at once.....Asha's POV, revealing a shocking plot twist.........and a capture at the very end - you'd never guess!  
  
"Hopeful"  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
Alec's thougts were running faster than his legs were carrying him. He had a plan but no way to convince Max it would work. Adrenaline coursed through his body. Intense as the situation was, he found it exciting being on the run again. Never felt the same way twice. He knew he couldn't share that with Max though, she'd probably just hit him on the head.   
  
Thinking he was feeling things, someone grabbing at his chest, he looked down, finding himself meeting Eva's open, hazel eyes. His eyes felt blurry for a moment, his heart shredding his chest in two. It had to be something conjured up within his mind. Then again, nothing this good even happened in his dreams.  
  
"Max, she's awake!" he said, triumphantly and halted running in front of an old, burnt down factory. Max recoiled her steps and came behind him, to see Eva's little face peeking out over his shoulder, a look of blank indecision on her face. Almost like she wanted them to tell her where she was. Dang, she was a smart child.  
  
"Oh, Thank God!" Max cried. He had never heard Max thank God for anything before. How'd she even know He had anything to do with it? Life didn't suck all the ti- well, maybe He had alittle bit to do with it. Anyways, he didn't even care to think about it. Eva was awake but for how long?- no one knew. Except Lydecker. And he wasn't coming within five feet of his baby girl. Time to spring the plan on Max.  
  
"I know this is bad timing," Alec said, starting it off with an apology to soften her mood. Except she caught on and gave him a mauling stare. "But we need a plan. Not just to save Eva but ourselves. Without us, she won't live at all."  
  
"So, what? We hide." Hiding would have been his first choice if it wasn't Donald Lydecker they were dealing with. They probably were bugged with a neural transmitter, little bleeps on a computer screen. They needed a plan that could trap Lydecker as well. And he had the perfect spot.  
  
"I don't know about you but I'd kind of like to get rid of this jerk once and for all." He knew he had hit the spot when Max had nothing to reply. "So here's what I suggest. We go to Manticore."  
  
"Now you've really lost it, Alec. Go to Manticore? Thats your stupidest idea in the history of stupid ideas. No way am I going there." Max took Eva from him and stared him back in the face, "By the way, why?"  
  
"Manticore kind of wants the guy dead....bada boom, he distracts most of Manticore's elite while we sneek in for some help." Alec could barely hide the proudness in his voice as he told Max the plan. It'd been a long time since Alec made a right move. Called the shots. He was the head honcho now. He was the leader. He was being hit on the head. "Hey!"  
  
"And who the heck in Manticore would help us?" Dang, he thought with the stinging pain that was his brain, good point. He quickly thought of an option, something that sounded full-proof. Logan. He'd jump on the Space Needle to save Max and this kid. Maybe being friends with the glasses wearing computer nerd wasn't such a waste. Alec smiled.  
  
"Logan." The guy looked like the kind of guy Manticore would hire. He could pass easily as a doctor or lab tech. Get Logan in Manticore, get Eva out of the woods. Then Max and Alec could finally start their lives together as a real family. Logan could find some nice blonde chick to settle down with, oh maybe with the first name Asha, and start his own family. Fairy tale ending. There was no way it could go wrong.   
  
"I like the way you think," Max said, the glimmer of hope returning to her eyes. It comforted him to see her have faith again. He hadn't seen much of it latly. Not even in himself. Eva was bringing more than they bargained out of them. Alec gently caressed Max's cheek with his hand, rubbing away softly the stained tears on her cheeks. She was so beautiful. Maybe he should tell her. Maybe she knew. The way she smiled, the way she held him in her arms. He was a new man.   
  
"I like the way you are," Max's tantalizing stare could have brought any other man to his knees. Sometimes, when they'd meet eyes at work, he'd see Max just standing there and he'd wonder to himself how such a person could affect him the way she did. He'd try to walk to her but he'd lose his strength. So maybe she did bring him to his knees. How could she not though? She was a dizzying display of beauty and intellect. And now they were alone, in the cold nights air. Max holding their child close to her bosom and smiling sweetly. Hopeful. Suddenly, he had one more thing to say.  
  
"Whatever happens Max, I need to let you know something."  
  
"Nothing will happen." she interrupted. Alec hesitated telling her 'no', in fear of losing her confidence. Instead he ignored her discrepancy.   
  
"Whatever happens. I love you."  
  
***  
  
Asha tapped at the elevator button a few times in hopes it would take her to the bottom quicker, to get out of this place. The smell of expensive cologne, the marble flooring and that stupid stuck-up doorman who sneered at her as she left. The air inside the apartment building was colder than it was outside, that was for sure. And Logan had been drunk the night before. She caught it immediatly. What she caught even quicker was that Logan, who was shamelessly trying to hide his hangover, didn't want her there. The call had been some random act of desparity. And Asha knew why. Max must have left him. A sad grin subtly crossed her lips as Asha slipped her arms around her waist and stared to the ground. The job had been done.   
  
What job, you may ask? It all started almost a year ago. Asha remembered it clearly. It was in the depths of night when a man had approached her in the Squeaky Clean Landromat two blocks past South Market. She was loading up her basket with a clean batch when she heard the door to the landromat swing open. Interested since she'd been alone in there for two hours now, she smiled and said 'hi'. He had a great smile, friendly tone of voice and a rather different sense of style. Leather jacket, she recalled, definatly someone with cash. Not a usual guest at the 'Mat but well-appreciated, since alot of people just didn't take the pride to look good anymore.   
  
He introduced himself as Don and asked if she needed any assistance with folding. Even though there were a few risque numbers in there, like a pair of lacy red panties and a red cami, she accepted the offer and sat down. The two discussed the economy and politics. Thats when the topic of Transgenics came about. He asked her if she believed that they really existed. Asha quickly thought of Max. In an act of jealousy, she said she knew one. The mans face brightened and instantly, she almost wished she hadn't said something. She did hate the fact Logan and her were together but she didn't hate Her, as a person. He continued though.  
  
"I know a few myself." he replied, a reassuring grin on his face. "I work with them. They're remarkable, aren't they?"  
  
"Remarkable, yeah. I guess so." He tilted his head in interest. She gave way to a sigh, dropping her 'tough girl' act. The guy wasn't so bad to talk to. And she didn't think she'd really ever see him again, so she talked. And talked. Talked about Max and Logan, the baby on the way and how she felt about it. His questions in reply weren't prying. He seemed to really care. So she gave him her number. He may have been 20 years older than her but a girl these days took what she could get. It was harmless right?   
  
She never would have thought that months down the road she'd still be in contact with the guy. And doing things she would never do. But she couldn't turn him down. There was never a shadow of a doubt. Years of escaping the police and she gets blackmailed into serving some military commando, spying and destroying her friends lives. Screwing any chance she ever had with Logan up. It sucked.  
  
One thing Asha knew she could pass down to future children of hers: Never trust strange men in laundromats.  
  
***  
  
It was morning but it didn't feel like it. The three had finally stopped running for awhile to rest in an empty freight train car that had been pulled off the tracks for repairs that obviously were never made. The air inside the boxcar was damp and frigid. Eva was bundled tightly in Alec's sweater but it didn't seem to keep her warm enough. Max slept only alittle while Alec kept watch. Things for Eva were becoming bleaker. Logan would have to be contacted and hired quickly. There was no time to lose. He tapped Max's arm to wake her.  
  
"Hmmm..." Alec smiled watching Max wake up. It was like watching his first sunrise. Then the cold breeze hit him and brought him back to his senses. Darn it. Bliss was such a pleasant feeling, too.  
  
"Give me a quarter." he asked as he took off his jacket, leaving him covered only with a tight black t-shirt. Max fumbled around her pockets for a second and pulled one out, handing it to him. "He won't hang up, will he?"  
  
"Tell him Eva is sick. He won't hang up on you." Alec nodded, then appreciatively kissed her cheek. She moaned lightly and scooted him away with her hand. Her eyes fell on the jacket and shouted, "Alec, your coat!" With a grin Alec turned and looked at his girls.   
  
"Stay warm. I'll be back." Running along the railroad tracks, Alec felt the cold hit him like a thousand knives. It never felt so good to be alive. To be happy. To be hunted. He was so sure things would finally be right again, that he didn't care a heartless old trainer from Manticore was hunting them down and trying to kill their child. Someone was watching over them. Maybe that God he heard about. Eva would live. Max would live. Alec would finally live, for the first time in his life. Life was go-......................  
  
  
  
To Be Continued...  
  
***  
  
OH NO! If you want to know what has happened to Alec, what happens when Logan gets inside Manticore and how they make Lydecker leave them alone-forever-reviews will amp my writing! The story will go on, but not without your help. Trust me, I'll stop. I am very stubborn!!!!!!! : )  
  
Reviews! I must have Reviews!   
  
Press that purple button, guys! You must, you must, you must!   
  
Or the purple button people eater will get you! (ok , that was alittle lame....) : ) 


	11. Save You

Max had never prayed in her life- not even once. She'd done that thing in confession, only the entire time she wasn't quite sure who she was talking to. To the priest or to God. Wherever he was. But now she knew someone up there had to be looking out for her, hearing the groanings of her heart. Her sick daughter was at least awake now, acknowledging Max with small smiles. Still, it haunted her to think that in seconds her lively, beaming child could die and she could do nothing to stop it. She hadn't promised Eva a few months of a happy life. She had promised a lifetime. And she intended to stick to that promise. Max looked at her daughter once more, her tiny body reclined between Max's legs. Heat radiated off her, Max could feel it. Taking her hand, she spread it across Eva's forehead. Warm. She could have a horribly high fever and yet she was so quiet lying there. How could she be so quiet?  
  
Max took the blanket off Eva and lifted her higher in her arms. Red blotches were appearing all over her legs and a deeper fright filled Max's mind.  
  
"What's going on?!" she exclaimed, worriedly. Quickly she wished Alec would return. He'd been gone awhile now, too long to make just one simple phone call. But Max knew she'd need to wait. Eva wasn't strong enough to take the chill of outside the freight. Maybe niether was Max. But she knew she could handle it with Alec by her side. Alec who loved her.   
  
Why had she worried so much? Hadn't he been so obvious through the pregnancy? Worried and so understanding for her? Logan had been there but he may as well as been gone. She'd tried to talk to him about Eva and her dreams for her but he would keep his face on the computer monitor the entire time, occasionally muttering yeah's. She'd gotten the feeling a long time ago that his idea of love was working, to pay for fine and expensive gifts for Max and Eva. Alec's love was unadulterated. He'd never known it before, never been allowed to feel it. Yet he could express it more easily than someone who'd known it for years. Love was what you feel for someone who has been a constant in your life, been there and done that with you, and cared for you no matter what nasty habit you have. Maybe Logan would understand that some day.   
  
"Alec....where are you?" Max huffed anxiously. Bent over Eva, rocking her back and forth, Max began to pray. "God, if you hear this, please take care of them. Don't worry about me, God, just take care of them." Amen.  
  
***  
  
"Going somewhere, X-5 494?" spoke a voice from above. Alec's vision was blurry from the blow but he managed to get up and shake it off quickly. Lydecker. Not exactly who he wanted to see.  
  
"Just taking a stroll," he managed a reply, casual and without sounding protective. Any inflection that Max and Eva were nearby could sabatoge the entire plan. Not to mention put them all back at Manticore. Alec grinned, "What are you doin' in this neck of the woods?" Lydecker took out his gun and pointed it at him.  
  
"Don't try anything funny, 494." Lydecker warned, grinning back. Alec scoffed. He could outrun a gun when he was five. What was Lydecker thinking? He'd been the one who trained him to do it, too! Still, he'd keep on his toes. This wasn't Lydeckers mission - he was good with a gun but even better with back-up.  
  
"Ut oh, your not gonna hurt me, are you?" Alec pleaded sarcastically. As Alec raised his arms as a white flag in pretend, Lydecker raised his gun higher.   
  
"You always were a wise-cracker." Something flashed in Lydeckers eyes, a twinkle of fear. Alec mauled him with a stare. The jokes were over. Time to get down to business. "That why Max loves you?"   
  
"You leave her out of this-" Alec growled and went into attack. Smoothly, Alec raised his leg in concordance with Lydeckers chest and kicked with all his might. Lydecker went down like he'd been hit with a jackhammer and Alec landed behind him with a smile, kicking the gun out of and away from his reach. "or I'll have to kill you."  
  
"You couldn't kill the one man that could save your daughter," Lydecker was like a cat, lying on the ground belly up, completly sure he wasn't in danger. Infuriated, Alec took a stance over him, legs opposite both sides of Lydeckers body and picked him up by the collar. Staring eye to eye, Alec felt a sense of maker and creation. He was staring down the man who brought him into this sick, disgusting world. And oh, how he wanted to destroy that man using the techniques he'd taught him. He'd take pleasure in it. "Why are you hesitating, 494? Kill me!" Alec's eyes narrowed. For a second, he wanted to. He was ready to. Thats when he could feel his daughter in his heart and witnessing in his mind a vision of her crying out in the dark, a horrible pain bringing her to her death.   
  
No.  
  
"No," Alec repeated, this time aloud, "first, you help me. Then you die."  
  
***  
  
The hour was getting late and Logan had finally made up his mind to leave when he reached for his keys off the bookshelf and a Barbie puzzle piece fell off to the floor. Logan stared for a moment, umoving. His face went hard as he bent down to pick it up. It was sticky with grape jelly from her playdate with a child from her daycare center. Just a couple days ago, before any of this had happened. Before the email or the call. Oh God, Logan muttered beneathe his breath, the call.  
  
The memory of it played back, scaring him he had actually blocked it from his mind. With all the emotions of last night, getting drunk and passing out - he actually forgot about Eva being in fatal danger. What kind of father was he? Obviously not paternal, that was for sure.  
  
~'Do I know you?'~  
  
`'You'll want to after I tell you your 'daughter' will die without my help.'  
  
Oh God, he muttered again and quickly reached into his pocket, frantically searching around for his cell phone. He dialed up Alec's apartment number as he tried to catch his breath.   
  
"Pick up!" he shouted at the phone when the answering machine came on. Leave a message? He shook his head and slammed the phone onto his lap, shutting it off. He'd started to kick himself over not getting Max a cell phone right about now. The girl was never where she was supposed to be. So he'd need to use his mental tracking system.   
  
Max leaves the house, probably goes to Alecs. No, definatly goes to Alec's. Whatever they do inbetween before leaving is of no consequence to the situation so Logan channels his thoughts to the directive: where are they? Possibilities: Hotel? Logan scolds himself and quickly thinks again. Lydecker. He has figured out where Alec is. Of course he'd know where Alec is, his name was listed as a relative on Max's hospital records, address and all. So they escape and are on the run. Where'd they run to? Say Eva has become sick already, they might try getting ahold of Dr. Carr. Not alot proof in it but there would be no harm in trying. He'd call Dr. Carr and ask. Logan speed dials the hospitals number and waits to be greeted.  
  
"Seattle County Hospital, may I help you?" a woman spoke, a sniffle in her voice. Logan asked for Dr. Carr when the woman broke out into uncontrollable sobs.   
  
"Hello?" he asked over and over until a new voice came on the phone and explained. Carr was dead, killed on his way home. Sounded like Lydecker was already covering tracks. "I'm sorry, I gotta go." Logan shut the phone down, rolled into the bedroom and strapped into the prototype. He'd need legs to track down to X-5s on the run from a secret ex-government commanding officer whose had the last year to plot an entire mission to kill them. Logan passed his gun closet and opened it, pulling out a 55mm Magnum. He'd need that too.   
  
  
  
***  
  
AUthors note : Okay so guys I am getting close to ending this soon. But I am having alittle w.b. and it would so great if you could give me an idea on how you want this story to go or end. It might help me. Alot.  
  
Thanks for reading this far, its so touching you enjoy my writing. Again, I thank you. Until next time, I am your writer-Heather 


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